Thursday, August 3, 2017

Monument to US immigration is Ellis Island--not Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island was required first stop for all persons seeking to emigrate to the US from 1892 to 1954. Everyone was checked for diseases. US government at that time didn't want to infect healthy people or bring new diseases. 3000 pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily

Passengers were dispersed between first class, second class and
steerage, according to wealth of each passenger. The contrast between
first and second classes meant that those with greater wealth enjoyed
staterooms and cabin whilst steerage was just an open space at the
bottom of the boat.

Although concerns about
undesirable immigration to the United States had been discussed for
decades, and action had been taken to prevent the immigration of most
Asians, fears springing out of the aftermath of World War I again
bestirred those who would close the floodgates of immigration.

According to
federal officials scattered throughout European consulates, literally
millions of Europeans hoped to emigrate to the United States in the
aftermath of World War I(1914-1918). Some of these would-be immigrants
could be considered as coming from the "desirable” classes of western
and northern European nations, but it appeared that the vast majority of
the potential immigrants would be coming from southern and eastern
Europe.